F Is For Family: 10 Must-See Movies Featuring The Cast

Netflix’s F is for Family recently wrapped up its five-season run with a wildly satisfying finale episode that provided a heartwarming swansong for the Murphys and brought Frank’s arc full circle.

As its star and co-creator, Bill Burr is the driving force of F is for Family. But he’s backed up by such legendary actors as Laura Dern, Sam Rockwell, and Jonathan Banks in the voice cast. Both main roles and guest roles were filled by recognizable stars. Between them, these actors have starred in a bunch of awesome movies.

10 Bill Burr – The King Of Staten Island (2020)

Bill Burr is, of course, the star and co-creator of F is for Family. While he’s primarily a standup comic, Burr has been carving out an impressive acting career in recent years. Most of Burr’s most acclaimed acting roles have been on TV shows, like Breaking Bad’s Kuby, The Mandalorian’s Mayfeld, and indeed F is for Family’s Frank.

But Judd Apatow recently gave Burr his first major film role in Pete Davidson’s semi-autobiographical starring vehicle The King of Staten Island. Burr plays a firefighter who starts dating Davidson’s widowed mom, played by Marisa Tomei.

9 Justin Long – Dodgeball (2004)

Burr’s rage-filled portrayal of Frank is hilariously matched by Justin Long’s equally rage-filled yet much whinier portrayal of his teenage hothead son Kevin.

Across Long’s storied acting career, he’s played a hilarious foil for Bruce Willis in a Die Hard sequel and a scene-stealing adult film star in a Kevin Smith movie. But his funniest performance is in the absurdist sports underdog comedy Dodgeball opposite F is for Family executive producer Vince Vaughn.

8 Laura Dern – Blue Velvet (1986)

Sue’s A-list voice actor Laura Dern only became a bona fide movie star after playing Dr. Ellie Sattler in Jurassic Park, the highest-grossing movie at the time, but she’d given plenty of incredible performances before then. In 1986, she played a supporting role in David Lynch’s disturbing neo-noir masterpiece Blue Velvet.

The story revolves around Kyle MacLachlan’s Jeffrey being pulled out of his comfortable suburb and drawn into a criminal underworld. In the role of Sandy, Dern represents the idyllic Americana of the suburbia he leaves behind.

7 Sam Rockwell – Galaxy Quest (1999)

The Murphys’ laidback neighbor Vic Reynolds might sound like Matthew McConaughey, but his voice is actually provided by Sam Rockwell. Rockwell is best known for his Oscar-winning turn in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, but one of his first big roles was in the sci-fi satire Galaxy Quest.

Way ahead of its time, Galaxy Quest lampooned obsessive sci-fi fandom through the lens of actors from a Star Trek-type TV show being abducted by aliens to fight an actual intergalactic war.

6 David Koechner – Cheap Thrills (2013)

David Koechner’s distinctive voice is instantly recognizable. Within seconds of Bob Pogo’s debut in the first season of F is for Family, audiences recognized him as Champ Kind, Todd Packer, or possibly as Colin from Cheap Thrills.

With a delightfully dark sense of humor, Cheap Thrills tells the story of a recently unemployed mechanic meeting a rich guy (Koechner) in a bar and doing increasingly degrading things for money to save his family from being evicted.

5 Allison Janney – I, Tonya (2017)

Allison Janney’s most popular TV performance in recent memory is her multi-Emmy-winning turn in Mom on CBS, but she also gave a memorable turn as Henrietta Van Horne, the founder of Plast-A-Ware, across five episodes in F is for Family’s second and third seasons.

Around the time she appeared on F is for Family, Janney also won an Oscar for her incredible performance as Tonya Harding’s abusive mother LaVona Golden in I, Tonya. Janney embodied the pitch-black comedic tone of the movie perfectly.

4 Jonathan Banks – 48 Hrs. (1982)

Jonathan Banks gave a typically gruff performance in F is for Family as Frank’s dad, “Big Bill.” Before Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul earned him the recognition he always deserved, Banks had been playing bit parts and supporting roles for decades.

He played supporting characters in two Eddie Murphy buddy cop comedies in the 1980s: 48 Hrs. and Beverly Hills Cop. The former, directed by superstar action filmmaker Walter Hill, defined the subgenre’s tropes.

3 Carol Kane – The Princess Bride (1987)

Carol Kane is yet another comedy legend who guest-starred in F is for Family, briefly playing the role of Sue’s mother. Kane gave a similarly unforgettable turn in a small role opposite Billy Crystal’s Miracle Max in The Princess Bride as Valerie, Max’s wife.

Rob Reiner’s movie is both a wildly entertaining straightforward family-friendly fantasy adventure and a sharp deconstruction of fairy tales and their tropes and archetypes.

2 Gary Cole – Office Space (1999)

In the first couple of seasons of F is for Family, Gary Cole played Frank’s boss Roger Dunbarton. After Dunbarton was gruesomely killed off in the season 2 finale, Frank worked for a series of other interminable managers.

Cole was the perfect casting for Frank’s original boss, because his breakout role was hard-ass office manager Bill Lumbergh in Mike Judge’s hysterical corporate-culture satire Office Space.

1 Vince Vaughn – Brawl In Cell Block 99 (2017)

Vince Vaughn was an executive producer on F is for Family from the beginning, eventually lending his voice to the Murphys’ sinister neighbor Chet Stevenson in the show’s third season. After making his name as a comedic actor in movies like Swingers and Wedding Crashers, Vaughn has veered into darker, more dramatic territory in recent years with roles in True Detective and Hacksaw Ridge.

The pinnacle of this dark turn is his work with director S. Craig Zahler, whose grisly, ultraviolent gems Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete have shown audiences entirely new sides of Vaughn’s on-screen persona (including a side that beats up a car with his bare hands).

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Ben Sherlock
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Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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